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"As Washington teams up with autocratic regimes–some of which notoriously use the cover of their faith to justify unfair policies–the United States may have credibility problems among the very people it hopes to help," writes Robin Wright.

"Two bitter rivals in a bitterly divided nation will be sharing power under an arrangement that represents not the will of the Afghan people but a solution imposed by the international community," writes Michael Kugelman.

"As the world focuses on the atrocities of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a far more brutal scenario has been unfolding some 2,500 miles directly south of Damascus," writes Steve McDonald.

Michael Kugelman gives several reasons why there is still hope for a positive outcome to the current impasse in Afghanistan's election crisis. "No one ever said it will be easy to craft a happy ending to this tale -- but it's still quite possible," he writes.

"The worst outcome would be another open-ended, treasury-sapping, coffin-producing, and increasingly unpopular war that fails to erase ISIS or resurrect Iraq. The Middle East has a proven record of sucking us in and spitting us out," writes Robin Wright.

Chinese leaders have identified U.S. and Western culture as threats to Chinese values and society. But as China becomes more engaged with the world, is it possible to encourage foreign investment while avoiding the power of pop culture?

A spokesman for Abdullah Abdullah says the Afghan presidential candidate will reject the results of the election audit. The move could deepen the crisis and prove catastrophic, said Michael Kugelman in this interview with Deutsche Welle.

From August 4-6, 2014, the first ever US-Africa Summit took place in Washington, DC. The Africa Program and its colleagues provided daily coverage of the event and a variety of perspectives on what this means for US-Africa relations going forward.